The Municipal Court has the jurisdiction to conduct trials, accept guilty pleas, and impose sentences on misdemeanors — any offense with a maximum punishment of five years or less. On your trial date, a few things can happen. If the defendant decides to accept the plea offer that was made by the District Attorney, then the judge will hear the guilty plea and impose sentence. Technically, the judge can reject the plea offer, but that almost never happens with misdemeanor cases. Typically, the judge just accepts the plea and imposes sentence in accordance with the agreement. If there is no plea offer and the defendant pleads guilty anyway, the judge has the power to impose any sentence he or she wants.

Very few people go to jail for these kinds of offenses. Those who do are usually repeat offenders. For the most common cases — Retail Theft, Drug Possession, or Disorderly Conduct — the court orders probation. Probation is a program that allows people who have been convicted of a crime to stay out of jail as long as he or she obeys some rules. The rules can be pretty basic — don’t do drugs, keep the appointments with your probation officer, and stay out of any more trouble. If a probationer disobeys these rules, he or she can be sent to jail.

There is one misdemeanor crime, however that has a mandatory jail sentence — Driving Under the Influence of alcohol (DUI). Mandatory, unfortunately, means exactly that — it is mandatory and the judge has no discretion at all. First offenders can avoid jail if they qualify for ARD, which I have written about before. However, people who been convicted of DUI before cannot get the benefit of ARD. They must either win at trial or go to jail — in some cases, the minimum jail term is one year!

Which leads to tomorrow’s post — how trials are conducted in the Municipal Court. Here’s something to ponder on that point: there is no jury.

If the case doesn’t plead, then there will be a trial, and that will be discussed tomorrow.

The person knows he or she did wrong and is relieved not to be going to jail. Years go by and the person has forgotten about his or her youthful indiscretion.

Until he or she gets turned down for a job, a mortgage, or a professional license because an old criminal conviction that resurfaced following a criminal background check. For example, forty-six states plus the District of Columbia require criminal background checks for health workers.

The fact of the matter is that although many people who find themselves hauled up on charges repeatedly and never seem to learn their lesson, many times more are people who make one mistake and learn from it. These are the people for whom pre-trial diversion is appropriate.

A pre-trial diversion is a program that moves the case off the court calendar for a period of time, usually a year. During that time the defendant may be on probation or doing community service. If they complete the program successfully, the charges are dismissed.

Dismissal means no conviction and a clean record. Usually, any trace of the offense can be wiped off the record and nothing will show in a criminal background check.

In Pennsylvania, pre-trial diversion is known as Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition — ARD. Each county District Attorney sets the rules for the county, and each county is different. Neighboring counties, therefore, can have vastly different rules for the program. For example, in Montgomery County, PA, no drug offense is eligible for ARD, but next door in both Bucks County and Philadelphia, drug possession charges can be admitted to ARD (not drug dealing, however). Furthermore, each county has its own application procedures — Montgomery and Bucks use ARD application forms, while Philadelphia makes the admission decision during plea negotiations in most case, no form necessary.

While you don’t necessarily need an attorney to get into ARD, having a lawyer who knows the ins and outs of the system makes it a lot easier. After all, with each D.A. deciding the rules for each county, that means there are 67 different sets of rules out there. While the urge to admit your mistake and move on is strong (and admirable, I might add), doing so can have devastating consequences for years to come.

If you have been charged with an offense and would like to discuss your options, including ARD, call me, attorney Charles Thomas at 877-397-3003.